Transfer tail winding



Sept. 27, 1966 J. c. BOLGER TRANSFER TAIL WINDING 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 12, 1964 INVENTOR JOHN C. BO LGER ATTORNEY Sept. 27, 1966 J. c. BOLGER TRANSFER TAIL WINDING 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 12, 1964 INYVENTOR JOHN OBOLGER F'IGZ.

ATTORNEY United States Patent Office Patented Sept. 27, 1966 3,275,252 TRANSFER TAIL WINDING John C. Bolger, Hopewell, Va, assignor to Allied Chemical Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed lune 12, 1964, Ser. No. 374,760 1 Claim. (Cl. 242-18) This invention relates to method and apparatus for Winding a transfer tail upon a horizontally disposed, surface driven package.

In production of continuous filament yarn it is desirable to be able to remove a full package of yarn from winding apparatus and substitute empty package with as little delay as possible so that wastage of the yarn which is being continuously produced will be minimized. Moreover it is important to make this transfer in a way that does not cause damage to the yarn which is first wound upon the new package. Desirably these results will be accomplished with apparatus which is simple to construct, easy to maintain, and adaptable to conventional machinery with minimum alterations thereof. Simple and sure operation is also of course desirable.

Apparatus and method giving the desirable results above summarized is provided by the present invention. In accordance with the invention, an L-shaped I guide is pivoted at the junction of its arms upon an upright support in front and at one end of a conventional horizontal surface driven winding apparatus of the print roll type. This guide cooperates with a radial starting pin on the base of the driven roll or spindle and with a conventional open traverse guide on the machine, when the method of the invention is employed, as will appear from the more detailed discussion which follows, to wind a transfer tail and allow smooth automatic threading of the traverse guide.

The drawings show the apparatus of the invention in perspective, FIG. 1 showing the operations for stringing up the transfer tail guide; FIG. 2 showing the operation for starting the transfer tail; and FIG. 3 showing the Winding of the transfer tail and start of the main package.

The apparatus consists of a pigtail guide 1 which guides the continuously advancing yarn from its source to pig tail guide 2 mounted at front center of a downward sloping table in front of the winding apparatus proper. Reference numeral 3 designates the upright bracket upon which the L-shaped guide of the invention is pivoted at 14. This L-shaped guide is shown as having a long arm 13 and a short arm 23.

Reference numeral 8 designates the head of the winding spindle, upon which starting pin or hook 4 is radially mounted. Element 5 is a tube or core on which the yarn is to be wound. Element 6 is a guard which keeps the free end formed on start-up from tangling with the bearings of the spindle, and 7 designates a handle which engages and disengages tube 5 and driving roll 11 by lowering and raising the spindle carrying the tube. Ele ment 11 is a driving roll of the print roll type, upon which the advancing yarn is laid down to be picked up on the tube as it rotates in surface contact with the print roll.

Reference numeral 12 indicates a conventional open traverse guide which during normal winding lays the yarn upon the print roll, from which the yarn is passed to the tube in the desired Winding pattern.

My invention includes both the above described apparatus and the method of threading it up and using it which is as follows.

When a package is complete, it is disengaged from the driving roll 11 by raising handle 7 and thus raising the package to approximately the position shown in FIG. 1 by the full lines. The oncoming yarn is immediately supplied in a loop to a takeup such as an aspirator for temporary collection while the full package is being removed. This temporary collector can be at any convenient location, e.g. at the right of the machine. The return strand from the temporary collection point to the full package is cut and this package is taken off the winding head 8, for removal of strained yarn from the tail as described below.

An empty tube is then placed upon winding head 8. A strand of oncoming yarn between pigtail guide 2 and roll 11 is carried over roll 11, and under and around the new tube 5. The line followed by the yarn as a consequence of this step is indicated by P1 in FIG. 1 of the drawings. Since this yarn line contacts roll 11, the yarn in this position will frequently be picked up by the moving traverse 12 as indicated in FIG. 1.

The next step is for the operator to lower handle 7 thereby lowering the spindle and engaging tube 5 with print roll 11 While still guiding the oncoming yarn forward from the top of tube 5 with one hand as indicated by the arrow in path P1 of FIG. 1.

Immediately as part of this second step, the operator with the other hand lifts the oncoming strand of yarn between guide 2 and the print roll and lifts this strand over arm 13 of the L-slraped pivot guide, this arm 13 being in horizontal position and extending toward the head of the spindle as shown in FIG. 1. Thereby the yarn is supported just above the level of traverse guide 12 as the yarn runs from arm 13 down to the pinch point where it passes between tube 5 and print roll 11. The oncoming yarn is still being guided toward the operator from the top of tube 5 as indicated by the arrow in FIGURE 1 and is still being taken up at the point of temporary collection. The resulting yarn path is indicated by P2 of FIG. 1.

The third step, which immediately follows, is for the operator to draw the yarn, advancing over the top of roll 5, in front of and across head 8 of the spindle whereby the radial pin 4 will catch and secure the yarn as the pin rotates forward and downward in the direction indicated in the drawings. The resulting yarn path is indicated at P3 in FIG. 2. The operator then immediately cuts the yarn between the pin and the point of temporary collection as indicated at C in FIG. 2; or in fact the yarn may break at the point where it is held by the operator; under the pull of pin 4 catching the yarn. It will be appreciated that tube 5 is in full rotation at the surface speed of print roll 11 when the yarn is caught on pin 4; and that this surface speed is the linear speed at which the yarn is advancing from its source.

The yarn is now passing as shown in FIG. 3, over arm 13 near the head end of tube 5, around behind arm 23, and thence downward across the path of traversing guide 12 but above guide 12, to the pinch point between roll 11 and tube 5, then back of tube 5. A spiral or bunch of windings is accordingly produced toward the head end of tube 5 as the tube rotates and the yarn is guided toward the head of tube 5 by passing through the angle between arms 13 and 23, as indicated at P4 in FIG. 3. These windings are produced with surface speed of the tube already at a level equal to the linear speed of advance of the yarn, as above noted.

The operator now raises arm 13 to its alternative, vertical position as shown in phantom in FIG. 3. This allows the yarn to slide toward machine center upon arm 23 which now slopes slightly down from horizontal, toward machine center. The yarn path from guide 2 to the print roll is thus progressively shortened without jerking the yarn, even though the winding machine normally puts tension on the yarn. Any slack which may drop onto roll 11 is picked up by rotating tube 5 as part of the end windings, and the advancing yarn now lies in a straight line between pigtail guide 2 and the point where the yarn first makes contact with print roll 11. This straight line intersects the path of traversing guide 12 near its extreme right traverse, so that the yarn slides into traversing guide 12 as the traversing guide meets this yarn line, as indicated at P in FIGURE 3. Normal winding of the package on tube 5 is thereby initiated.

The placement of support 3 is enough to the right to assure that the windings P4 formed on the end of the tube as shown in FIG. 3 lie on the tube but to the right of the normal path of traverse of the traversing guide and are accordingly spaced from the winding laid down by the traversing guide. When the package is complete and the tube has been removed as first described, all of these end windings can easily be pulled off the end of the tube, without disturbing the main package.

Strained yarn produced when the pin first takes hold, between the pin and the point of temporary collection, is cut out from the tail thus obtained. Also any strained yarn produced at the package side of the pin upon start-up is cut out. Any strained yarn on the package side of the pin will be confined to the end of the tail because, first, the tube and the starting pin are rotating in the direction of advance of the yarn and at about the speed of the oncoming yarn when start-up begins; and second, because when the pin catches the yarn at start-up, the yarn is already being gripped between the tube 5 and print roll 11, and has already made more than a /2 turn on the tube as seen in FIGURE 2. Because of the combined effects of small velocity changes and considerable frictional grip thus developed at start-up, little if any start-up pull is transmitted beyond the first half turn of yarn on the tube. Moreover when the end windings are completed there is no jerk as the main package starts, as above explained. Thus by the apparatus and method of this invention a tail of suificient length for transfer purposes is formed very quickly, with only a few turns of yarn, and the tail proper contains only high quality yarn.

It will be appreciated that obvious variants can be made in the above outlined method of procedure and apparatus which will produce the same end results. For instance at the beginning, the yarn need not necessarily be put under tube 5 when this tube is in raised, disengaged position; but instead the yarn can be slid between tube 5 and print roll 11 at the open end of the junction between them even after tube 5 has been lowered into contact with print roll 11. Again, the yarn can be passed over arm 13 and behind arm 23 in the manner shown by P2 of FIG. 1 while tube 5 is still in elevated position; and tube 5 can then immediately be lowered to produce the same yarn path as shown at P2 of FIG. 1. Moreover it is possible while obtaining at least some of the advantages of this invention to give the above L- shaped guide different forms; and even to make it a fixed rather than a pivoted guide, from which the yarn is released manually with sliding contact with the fingers or a hook as the yarn path is progressively shortened to a straight line from guide 2 to the print roll. Also the yarn securing means need not necssarily be a radial pin or hook on the spindle head as shown, but can take any quickly strung up form such as a slot, for example, in the spindle head or in a flange on the tube, into which the yarn slides as the rotation of the spindle head brings the opening of such slot into engagement with the yarn strand being held across the head.

Iclaim:

Method for winding a transfer tail and starting the main package on a Winding machine carrying a surface driven tube, supported on a freely rotatable spindle and rotated together with said spindle by contact with a print roll which roll cooperates with an open traversing guide, and on which tube a continuously advancing yarn is to be wound; in which the successive steps are (1) providing an empty tube upon the spindle;

(2) guiding the continuously advancing yarn in a path passing through a fixed point forward of and about opposite the center of the machine, thence through a guide in front of the head end of the tube and higher than the top of the traversing guide and print roll; thence between the tube and the print roll in a path clearing the traverse guide, around the back of the tube, and thence forward over the top of the tube to present a free strand of running yarn which is taken up at a point of temporary collection;

(3) while contacting the tube with the rotating print roll and thereby rotating the tube at surface speed about equal to the linear speed of advance of the yarn, carrying the free strand of running yarn from the top of the tube toward and across the head end of the tube and across the path of a yarn securing element which is being carried in a circular path by rotation of the tube and spindle; securing the free strand of running yarn by said element, and as soon as the strand of running yarn is secured by said element, severing the yarn between said element and said point of temporary collection;

(4) continuing the rotation of the print roll to drive the tube at surface speed equal to the linear yarn speed as the yarn advances from said guide near the head end of the tube, thereby winding the yarn, under the guidance of said guide, around the tube near the head end of the tube and at essentially the linear speed of advance of the yarn;

(5) moving the yarn guide to allow the yarn to slide off and become disengaged from the guide and maintaining sliding contact between the yarn and the guide thereby progressively shortening the path of the yarn between the first mentioned point at front and center of the machine and the point of first contact of the advancing yarn with the print roll, until the yarn drops onto the print roll and is carried without jerking, at the surface speed of the print roll, in a practically straight line path from the first mentioned point, forward from the center of the machine, to the print roll, which path intersects the path of traverse of the traversing guide, into which guide the yarn slides as the traversing guide meets this last yarn path, whereby the main package is wound on a section of the tube spaced from the first formed windings.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner. 

